Israeli defense officials claim that the Lebanese Hizbollah movement has taken long-range Katyusha rocket launchers out of their storage dumps, apparently to ready them for use against Israel, Israel’s Army Radio reported, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
The radio report said that Israeli troops were on maximum alert for fear of a “Hizbollah terror strike to mark Wednesday's first anniversary of the army's withdrawal from south Lebanon.”
Hizbollah leaders have warned that they will respond to Israeli attacks "against the sovereignty and honor of Lebanon" with retaliatory strikes on Israeli soil beyond the disputed Shabaa Farms border area.
HIZBOLLAH SAYS IT REJECTED US BIDS TO MAKE CONTACT
Meanwhile, Hizbollah’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that the movement had turned down repeated attempts by the US administration to establish contact, reported the Associated Press.
“Despite calling Hizbollah a terrorist organization, the United States had tried to initiate contact with the group,” said Nasrallah.
"The US says that we are terrorists and works day and night to open a contact line or contact channel with us," he told a rally in Bednayel in the Bekaa Valley, 46 kilometers (28 miles) east of Beirut.
"We are the ones who reject it, and we are the ones who decide what we should do. We reject the honor of sitting with an American official," he said.
Nasrallah did not explain what kind of attempts were made, when or by whom.
However, he indicated that the purpose was to persuade his group to end attacks against Israel, said the AP.
"[Hizbollah] is the side that decides where the battlefield should be, its geographic scope, place and time. It imposes the rules of the game on the enemy [Israel]," he said.
US officials were not immediately available for comment when contacted by the agency on a Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sheik Naim Kassem, Hizbollah's number two, accused the US ambassador in Beirut, David Satterfield, of creating confusion when he said Lebanon had formally agreed to a UN-drawn border with Israel.
The so-called Blue Line, established after the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 24, 2000, left undecided the fate of the disputed Shabaa Farms area on the eastern edge of the 100-kilometer (60-mile) long line.
Israel occupied the territory in the 1967 Six Day War when it took the Golan Heights from Syria.
Syria and Lebanon now say the Shabaa Farms area is Lebanese and should be returned.
The United Nations say the territory belongs to Syria and should be part of Syrian-Israeli negotiations.
In a statement to reporters last week, Satterfield caused an uproar when he said Lebanon formally agreed to the Blue Line last year, adding: "This issue should not be reopened."
The government did not respond officially, but Salim Hoss, who was the prime minister when the line was drawn, said approving the Blue Line did not contradict Lebanon's claim to the Shabaa Farms area.
Kassem addressed a rally in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Melki to commemorate Hizbollah members killed in clashes with Israeli troops during the occupation.
Two protest rallies scheduled for Sunday in the southern Lebanese villages of Bint Jbeil and Khaim were canceled because of rising tensions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
